ARTICLE - 2 SISTER'S STORY

HAITI TWO YEARS LATER: TWO SISTERS' STORY
(SOS Childrens Villages) -

Twenty-nine-year-old Lelly Laurentus is an unemployed computer technician who drives a taxi when work is available. As reported by The Associated Press (AP), two years ago, after Haiti’s massive earthquake killed more than 300,000 residents and rendered a million more homeless, he made a decision that he thought was for the best.

Laurentus sent his two daughters, then four-year-old Leila and three-year-old Soraya, on a bus headed for the Dominican Republic. The American missionary who had come to his village of Calebasse, near the capital Port-au-Prince, promised a better life for children left destitute by the quake. They would be housed and educated, he was told.

Leila and Soraya were two of 33 children whom the U.S. Baptist missionaries, from Idaho, took under their wing because, they told authorities, they thought the youngsters were orphans in need of saving. Their mission was never realized; Haitian police stopped the bus at the border and charged the church volunteers with kidnapping. (They were sent to jail and eventually released.)

SOS Stepped in to Care for the 33 Haitian Children

Suspecting that the children had parents, the police placed them under the care of SOS Children’s Villages. SOS has a longstanding presence in Haiti and a reputation for unifying families whenever possible.

Working with the Haitian government and other charity groups, within about a month of receiving the children, SOS was able to reunite them with their biological families. It turned out that all 33 children had parents.

Laurentus now feels ashamed for putting his daughters on that bus, but at the time he had no roof to keep them dry -- their home had collapsed from the quake -- and little means of supporting them. He felt powerless to provide the life they deserved. The promise of shelter, food, and schooling for his girls was impossible to resist.

Today life in Calebasse remains challenging. “We still have problems but the children are able to eat and go to school,” Laurentus told AP. While he drives a cab, his wife, Manette Ricot, makes a little cash by sewing when there is work.

Haiti and around the World: Giving Children a Better Life

To help bolster Laurentus’s family, when his daughters were returned to him and his wife, SOS helped them pay for school fees. SOS also provided food staples including rice, oil, milk, and sardines...